Snatches in strength are full squat – warm up appropriately and start with a weight you know you can do. Increase the weight slightly each set, but don’t make huge jumps. If you find a weight that you want to stick with for the rest of the sets, stay there, otherwise keep increasing. Use this as a time to hone in that form! Beginners should do hang snatches or power snatch + OHS.

The conditioning in an increasing ladder of box jump overs, power snatches, and double unders. For box jump overs, you do not have to open your hips on top of the box, but you may land on the box to get to the other side. You can jump laterally or facing the box. Your score will be recorded as the last round completed + extra reps. So if you completed 7 box jumps, 7 power snatches, and 35 double unders + 3 box jumps, your score is 7+3. Hint: to get the amount of double unders, multiple the number of box jumps * 5. (1*5, 2*5, 3*5, 4*5, etc)

Today we end the month by celebrating Drew and the work he has put in over the past year at CrossFit Thermal, especially this past month. Hitting several PRs during the Open (7 unbroken muscle ups, multiple cleans at his previous 1RM (185#)) and his good-natured attitude earned him this recognition. In terms of significance of the numbers, Drew’s favorite numbers are 333 (total reps in workout) and 645 (number of reps for pull ups, push presses, and front squats) and 12 is the month he was born in. Here’s a little write up by Drew:

I have always lived by the phrase “If you always do what you’ve always done, then you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten.” Although for some reason I had never applied that to my fitness until I joined Thermal in April of 2014. Prior to Thermal, I worked out and got in ok shape, but it was the same routine over and over so I decided to give CrossFit a shot and haven’t looked back since. I was instantly reeled in once I saw the support and energy in a class and then Vin dropped a line on me that sealed the deal: “This level of fitness will make you harder to kill.” SOLD! Since I joined, I have reached a level of fitness that I thought was out of reach for me. I have hit lifetime PR after PR including my recent 205lb bench press, stringing 7 muscle-ups as well as hitting my clean PR in 15.4 three times! I even hit a bodyweight PR during the nutrition challenge that I thought would never happen. I’ve learned that anything is obtainable at Thermal and I know just how far I can truly push myself now. Another thing I did not anticipate was the friendships I would make along the way. The entire Thermal community is incredible and I wouldn’t be where I’m at today if it wasn’t for the motivation and support from everyone. I can’t imagine working out at any other box and I look forward to getting more efficient and continuing to get stronger alongside my friends at Thermal.

Now that the Open is over, we’ll be getting back on our regular 6 week cycles focusing on various things throughout the year. For these six weeks after the Open, we’ll be focusing on getting stronger and the best way to do that is by squatting. Today we will measure our 1RM back squats as a benchmark and six weeks from now we will retest.
Your score for conditioning is the total amount of burpees completed over 5 rounds.

Take about 20 minutes to get 3 heavy working sets of 5 bench presses. Then, conditioning is a simple triplet of deadlifts, push ups, and double unders. If you need to scale push ups, find an elevated surface to do them so you can have a full plank body. Scale for double unders is 3x single unders.

Its the final week of the 2015 CrossFit Games Open and we at CrossFit Thermal, hope that you had a blast. Things are wrapping up with a nice couplet to test our quads and lungs. Come early, and sign up, heats will begin at 9:30am. We planned on a BBQ afterward hoping the weather would cooperate, but it doesn’t look like it will. If we can’t grill, we’ll be pooling together and bringing in food from a local eatery to be decided upon. Feel free to bring some food or beverages, but don’t count on having a grill available.

Some nice races coming down to the wire here at Thermal….

Aileen, Ditty and Danielle, all in a tight race for the 7 spot for the ladies!!!

Heather and Megs separated by only one point for 4 the place!

Dustin, Colin and Lam are in a tight race to secure the number 10 spot.

Can Team #Natedog over take #TeamSizzle in the final WOD?

Vin and Grant tied for 1st going into the final WOD…who will win? Or will Ron beat them both badly enough to overtake the number 1 spot?

Lots of other story lines and possibilities guys, lets all have fun and finish this Open season with a bang!!

For strength, find a 1RM turkish getup for each arm. Use dumbbells, kettlebells, or even barbells.
Conditioning is the same 5 minute AMRAP with a 2 minute rest between. For every rep difference, do an equal amount of penalty burpees after the AMRAP (untimed) DON’T game round 1.

Strength today is a pressing complex: take the bar out of the rack and do 5 shoulder presses and follow immediately with 3 push presses. Find the highest weight you can do for this complex.
Conditioning is a triplet ladder consisting of front squats, burpees over bar, and toes to bar. The front squats are coming from the ground, so you’ll have to clean it. Full cleans are acceptable for the first rep. Burpees may be lateral (not bar-facing), and the scale for toes to bar are V-ups or sit ups.

As we learned from the Open, the muscle up is a high level strength and skill exercise. Use the beginning of class to work towards this. For beginners, this might mean banded strict pull ups, box assisted pull ups, or strict pull ups. For intermediates, this might mean working on unassisted ring pull ups, kipping pull ups, and transitions. And for advanced, we can focus on efficiency on the muscle up, usually focusing on not pulling early with the arms and making sure we are in a hollow body position on the way up.
Scale the conditioning barbell weight to a weight that you can do power snatches without having to press out, even if this means your power clean weight is lighter. You may scale the ring dips to box assisted dips or get tall boxes and do dips between those with your feet on the ground and “floating” as much as you can.

As CrossFit athletes, we are constantly trying to raise our fitness levels to new heights. Over the past 5 weeks many of us have participated in the CrossFit Games Open, and tried to quantify where exactly we land on the scale of fitness around the world. I’ve lobbied for years that the key to improvement is measuring your progress and keeping tabs on your training. This philosophy says that if your numbers are improving, your times are getting faster, and you’re achieving more reps in workouts, then, you’re achieving your goals. As a result you will look, feel and perform better. It’s simpler to follow these metrics than it is to go around day to day measuring every inch of your body, and having blood work done on a weekly basis. You won’t find someone with a sub 3 minute Fran time or who can complete 50 push-ups unbroken who doesn’t look and feel the part. So I say to you, improve your numbers to improve yourself.

Day after day we try to improve as CrossFitters by increasing our work capacity in three major domains; strength, endurance, and skill set. Each day we sprinkle some of our energy into these 3 categories of fitness and we try to improve them. Sometimes it’s a good idea to mix up how we work on those domains by focusing more on one particular element at a time. At first this sounds like it isn’t Crossfit, it is still Crossfit, but just with a focus, in this case, a focus that will last 8 weeks. Enter, CrossFit Thermal’s first Barbell Club program.

CrossFit Thermal is looking for about 6 people (men and women) to participate in its first Barbell Club offering. This group of individuals will follow the Catalyst Athletics 8 week general cycle, from Greg Everett and the Catalyst Athletics Training Program. The program itself is an Olympic Weightlifting cycle designed to improve the Snatch and the Clean and Jerk, while adding overall strength. In addition, these athletes will still be able to tackle their conditioning workouts, as detailed below. These classes will function like a club and be coached by the class itself, athletes will rotate in and out of movements and be queued, recorded and assisted by fellow athletes. In addition a large percentage of these meetings will have a dedicated coach.

Individuals interested should know how to warm-up on their own and have a basic understanding of the Oly lifts. It will help to have an idea of your max lifts coming into the program, but it doesn’t have to be exact. The program is written for 5 days of work per week and 2 rest days. For our version, we are looking for a 4 day commitment to training from everyone involved. This means that you could skip one of the Catalyst workouts, and still participate. This would also mean that if you have the capacity, you could still dedicate 2 days to CrossFit class and keep a rest day as well.

This program will meet officially at several times during the week in the main gym, and in the Forge:

Monday, Wednesday and Friday – In the “Forge”, during any regular class times

Tuesday / Thursday at 1:00pm in the main gym (reservations needed) and in the “Forge” during regular class times.

Saturday / Sunday 9-11am in the “Forge” or 11am in the main gym.

Participants are encouraged to meet together based on individual availability. In addition and with the permission of the coach, members following the program may enter regular Crossfit Classes for conditioning under the following circumstances.

“Lisa” arrives in the Forge at 6:00 pm and works through her Catalyst training until 7:00pm. She may leave the Forge and take the conditioning portion of the daily WOD with the 6:30 class, as long as she checks with the coach and there is availability. This should be a seamless transition, not to disrupt the flow of the class in progress, and the athlete making that transition should need only minimal assistance in preparing for the WOD, as many elements have already been discussed by the main coach.

CrossFit Thermal is happy to offer this program free with your Thermal membership. Dates and times are subject to change as the group takes shape and adjusts to meet individual needs. Coaches, Vinny and Plentus are both certified Level One Sports Performance Coaches by USA Weightlifting and CrossFit Weightlifting certificate holders. Coach Plentus is also certified by Catalyst Athletics as a Level One Weightlifting Coach. These coaches, as well as the full resources of CrossFit Thermal will be available for coaching assistance and program interpretation throughout the course of this program.

Take 20 minutes to find a 1RM front squat. You may want to do a static hold with 105-110% of your intended 1RM and then deload the bar to the intended 1RM. This will hopefully “trick” the body into thinking your new 1RM is “light.” You also should not tie your previous PR. (i.e. if I hit 300# before, I should do 285 or 290, then go for 305 for a modest PR. No sense in tying a PR.)
Conditioning is 5 separate rounds. In each round, you have 60 seconds to do 10 thrusters and then as many shuttle sprints as you can. 5 mats = 1 rep. Rest for 60 seconds afterwards. Your score is total reps of sprints over the 5 rounds.